Travis Kelce revealed the worst part of hosting Saturday Night Live happened behind the scenes. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end, who hosted the NBC sketch comedy series on March 4, 2023, shortly after his second Super Bowl win, told the Bussin' with the Boyspodcast that the "hardest" part of doing the show was the table reading.
"The writers' rooms were fun because you're just getting pitched ideas," Kelce, 35, said on the July 1 podcast. "The table reading, for a guy that can't really read that well, it was kind of a f---ed situation. I felt like I was just trying to get through the reading instead of actually acting it out and giving it a voice and giving it a character and things like that. I was just focused on, ‘Don't f---ing skip this line.'"
"The table read was the hardest f---ing part," the NFL star admitted of his experience on SNL.
Kelce appeared confident when delivering his SNL monologue and acting in sketches during the live show in 2023, but he later admitted he was a nervous wreck.
On the season 3 premiere of his New Heights podcast, Kelce revealed that during the SNL show at Studio 8H, he had to repeatedly tell himself, "'Travis, don't fall down these f---ing steps. Do not fall down these steps-you are live, dude, you are live."
SNL repertory player Heidi Gardner previously told the Today show that she pitched the idea for Kelce to host Saturday Night Live. The Kansas City native added that she felt "very protective" of the NFL star when he appeared on the show.
"He went and won the Super Bowl!" Gardner said. "And then I feel like he hosted SNL and he won SNL, he did such a great job," she added.
Travis Kelce Makes Bold Admission About ‘SNL' Hosting Gig first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 2, 2025
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